Pediatric Critical Care Medicine – Research

Division research activities are numerous and diverse, with faculty members engaged in bench, translational, and clinical research projects. There are multiple areas of investigation that we are proud to highlight:

Cindy Darnell. M.D., focuses her research on the delineation and improvement of the effectiveness and mitigation of the undesirable effects of the sedative and analgesic medications commonly used in the care of patients in the intensive care unit.

Archana Dhar, M.D., is the principal investigator (PI) of an IRB-approved retrospective study comparing the clinical characteristics of children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with seasonal influenza versus novel influenza H1N1.

Joshua Koch, M.D. serves as the site primary investigator for the multi-center trial, Therapeutic Hypothermia After Pediatric Cardiac Arrest (THAPCA). This trial is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and began enrollment on September 1, 2009. He is also primary investigator for the project, Prospective Analysis of Regional Cerebral Perfusion Using Head Ultrasound and Multi-Source-Detector Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) Imaging.

Peter Luckett, M.D.’s current research interests include clinical trials in pediatric critical care. In 2002 he was an initial organizing member of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) clinical trials group, which recently completed a collaboration with members of the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network (ARDSnet) as part of the NIH Roadmap contract mechanism entitled “Reengineering Clinical Research in Critical Care.”

Darryl Miles, M.D., works to understand the pathophysiology unique to childhood brain injury and to investigate the mechanisms of traumatic brain injury and neural self-repair. He hopes to contribute to the development of novel therapeutic strategies, ultimately improving the neurocognitive outcome of pediatric acquired brain injury.

Dr. Jessica Moreland focuses her research on better understanding the cell biology of inflammation with a specific interest in neutrophil biology. Her laboratory studies neutrophil priming by infectious and inflammatory stimuli and the role of the NADPH oxidase in pro- and anti-inflammatory signaling. In addition, the laboratory utilizes a murine model of SIRS and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS).